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ArmchairGM
ArmchairGM is a sports-forum and wiki site. It was created by four people, Dan Lewis, Aaron Wright, Robert Lefkowitz and David Pean. It was introduced to the public in early 2006. While the site was initially US-based, it has sought to improve its links to sports associated with Britain in particular over the past year. It has recently entered the top 100,000 websites in terms of traffic ranking according to Alexa. Special technology The site's main developer on the technological side was David Pean. While the site was based on the Mediawiki software used on Wikipedia, other things have been developed. Voting First, on any opinion or news article, users have the ability to vote for the ones they like. This feature is useful as it determines the content on the front page. The articles that get a certain number of votes (currently between 7-9 within a period of time) end up being displayed on the front page. Comments In the same way that blogs have the ability to have people comment about their articles, the site allows users to place comments on the article to discuss the content of the article. Only registered users are able to plus or minus comments depending on how they feel about them. News and Opinions Users have the ability to write several different types of articles. Two of the most prominent types are News articles, and Opinions. News articles can be an announcement about anything related to sports, but without the writers personal opinion inserted into the article. Opinions, on the other hand, allow users to write what they think about different sports-related topics of the day. Depending on the topic, users may research the topic before hand, or they might work on it over an extended period of time. Locker Room Beyond the basic News and Opinions articles, there is another type of article that users can create called the lockerroom, which was a user generated idea. The website states: The locker room is a place for ArmchairGM members to discuss among themselves community issues, sporting news that does not warrant a full article, and other issues of the day. Like the locker room of any sports team, we expect members to treat each other with civility. While inevitably, minor disagreements will occur, we expect you to do what anyone else would do: keep it in the locker room, and keep it from becoming a full-blown war. The locker room is the community's clubhouse. As such, it is everyone's responsibility to ensure that the locker room remains a hospitable place for community members. Users cannot vote for lockerroom articles, only comment on them. Beyond the above types, users are able to write general encyclopedic entries about sports-related topics, and write reviews on books and movies related to sports. Embedded Videos Another unique feature is the ability for users to embed a video into an article. This allows any sort of clip from Youtube or any other video hosting site available to be seen on the site instead of having to click on an external link in order to see it. Former Features Challenges Users had the ability to issue a "challenge" to another user. A challenge works similar to a bet, but is not for any real value. A challenge can be about the result of any sports event, or something else related to sports (for example, you challenge another user that the Boston Celtics will beat the Phoenix Suns). The losers have to write bios about topics of the winners choice.http://www.armchairgm.com/index.php?title=Special:ChallengeHistory Showdowns One of the former types of non-encyclopedic articles people could write were called showdowns. On occasion, two users feel strongly about a topic, and are on opposite sides. In a showdown, users post, as comments, their stance on the topic, and their response to the other side. The rest of the community give out pluses to those comments they agree with, or feel are good arguments. Other Features * A category of online sporting Blogs * Affiliates with other blogs, something currently being developed. In The News Wikia Purchase The site was bought by Wikia, a company founded by Jimmy Wales, for $2 million. The four developers have since shared their technology on Wikia, and have recently extended their range by providing Politics, Entertainment, Local services, Music, Video Games, Cars, and Health Charity Donations For Super Bowl Sunday, the site made charity donations for every comment posted. The main hub of this commenting was done in a Live Blog of Super Bowl XLI. Ebay Devil Rays Blog A regular contributor, Manny Stiles, recently sold his blogging services on ebay. He posts the resulting blogs on both a special blog he subsequently created, and ArmchairGM. Tampa Bay Devil Rays President Matt Silverman bought the 33 year old blogger for $535, before adding another $1000. The money went to AIDS awareness. Sports Illustrated On March 20th, 2008, SI.com added a new section to their website called the SI Vault Wiki, which is the ArmchairGM encyclopedia, worthy enough and rich with information of being the Sports Wiki for SI.com. http://siwiki.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/SI_Wiki External links *ArmchairGM References and notes Category:Wiki communities Category:Internet forums Category:Blogs Category:Sport websites Category:Wikia